1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a film holder for use in a dental X-ray film developing machine adapted to develop exposed dental X-ray films and also to a film mounting stage for the film holder.
2) Description of the Related Art
X-ray pictures of teeth have been used for the diagnosis and treatment of teeth in recent years. X-Ray photography of a tooth for obtaining its X-ray picture is effected by bringing an opaque dental X-ray film package, which contains an X-ray film sealed therein, into a diseased part within a mouth and then exposing the X-ray film to X-rays through the diseased part. By this X-ray photography, a latent image of the tooth is formed on the X-ray film.
After completion of the X-ray photography, the X-ray film package is taken out of the mouth and is then opened in a dark room to take out the X-ray film. The X-ray film thus taken out is processed for its development, for example, is developed, fixed and washed, whereby an X-ray picture of the thus-taken tooth is obtained on the X-ray film.
In order to easily conduct the above development processing without much labor, automatic developing machines have been proposed including, for example, the automatic developing machine disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. SHO 63-58237 laid open on Apr. 18, 1988. This developing machine will hereinafter be described with reference to some of the accompanying drawings.
FIG. 1 is a plan view of the above dental X-ray film developing machine, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line II--II of FIG. 1. In these drawings, numeral 1 indicates the automatic dental X-ray film developing machine. There are shown a circular bottom wall 2a, a cylindrical outer peripheral wall 2b provided upright from the peripheral edge of the bottom wall 2a, and a cylindrical inner peripheral wall 2c provided at a predetermined interval inside the outer peripheral wall 2b. An annular and groove-like space is formed by the bottom wall 2a, outer peripheral wall 2b and inner peripheral wall 2c. Designated at symbols 3a,3b,3c,3d are partition walls provided radially between the outer peripheral wall 2b and the inner peripheral wall 2c. The individual partition walls 3a-3d are arranged at predetermined intervals. Owing to the provision of the partition walls 3a-3d, the annular space has been divided into four compartments 4a,4b,4c, 4d. Numeral 5 indicates a motor mounted on the bottom wall 2a inside a cylindrical space formed by the bottom wall 2a and the inner peripheral wall 2c. The drawings also illustrate a rotary shaft 6 connected to the motor 5 either directly or via a reducing gear unit, not shown, an arm 7 fixed at one end thereof on the rotary shaft 6 and extending radially from the rotary shaft 6, and a suspending portion 7a formed at the opposite, namely, free end of the arm 7. The free end, namely, the suspending portion 7a of the arm 7 is positioned above the annular space and approximately at the mid-point between the outer peripheral wall 2b and the inner peripheral wall 2c. Designated at symbols 8a,8b,8c are plugs closing their corresponding discharge openings formed through lower parts of the peripheral outer walls 2b of the respective compartments 4a,4b,4c. Numeral 10 indicates a holder as a film-mounting member, which is adapted to support a dental X-ray film thereon. The structure of the holder 10 will next be described with reference to FIGS. 3(A) and 3(B).
FIG. 3(A) is a plan view of the holder shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 3(B) is a cross-sectional view of the holder taken along line III(B)--III(B) of FIG. 3(A). The holder 10 is composed of a main body 10a, a hole 10b formed through one end portion of the main body 10a, and a film-mounting portion 10c formed at the other end portion of the main body 10a. The film-mounting portion 10c is bifurcated as depicted in FIG. 3(A). By inserting both sides of a dental X-ray film F into the corresponding slots 10d,10d from the free end of the film-mounting portion 10c, the dental X-ray film F is supported on the holder 30.
Development processing by the developing machine 1 is conducted in the following manner. First of all, the compartments 4a,4b,4c are filled with a developer, a fixer and a washing liquid, respectively, and a heater is provided in the compartment 4d. The motor 5 is driven with the holder 10, on which the film F is supported, being suspended from the arm 7. As a result, the arm 7 is rotated so that the film F is allowed to successively pass through the developer, the fixer and the washing liquid and is then dried.
After passage through the compartment 4d, the holder 10 is detached from the arm 7 and the dental X-ray film F is removed from the film mounting portion 10c of the holder 10. The development processing of the dental X-ray film F has now been completed, so that an X-ray picture of a tooth is shown there.
The developing machine 1 is suited to easily develop exposed dental X-ray films by a dentist or his assistant in his office, and is usually installed and used in a bright room rather than a dark room. Upon processing for development, the dentist or the like takes out the exposed dental X-ray film package from the mouth of the patient. Inside a dark box connected to the above developing machine 1, the covering of the dental X-ray film package is opened to take out the film F and, after mounting the film F on the film-mounting portion 10c of the holder 10, the holder 10 is attached to the arm 7.
The above procedures are all carried out in the dark box so that they have to be done by feel. They are hence extremely cumbersome work for those unskilled, resulting in the problems that the above procedures require both labor and time.